What New York's Renewable Waste Water Management Can Teach China
Millions of Chinese citizens are flooding into urban areas throughout the country, with 70 percent of the nation’s population expected to reside in cities by 2030.As cities face an influx of residents, they also face an influx of wastewater and sludge.Currently, 80 percent of sludge in China is improperly dumped-—an increasingly controversial environmental issue that has urban centers scrambling to decrease pollution by improving their wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). As it grapples with these challenges, China could use an example to follow. New York City’s large size and innovative wastewater system make it one of the only municipalities in the United States that can serve as a useful case study for China’s growing cities.
By, Danielle Neighbour & Gillian Zwicker, Scientific American